One Small Ride
by cflat
Summary: Lt. Ford’s relatives contact NCIS in hopes that they can find him. NCIS xover with Stargate: Atlantis.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Both NCIS and Stargate: Atlantis belongs to other people.

A/N: I had this idea of a crossover for several months, but I didn't have a story to go with it then. NCIS is set in season 4, and SGA is set between_Common Ground_ and _The Return, pt. 1_.

Summary: Lt. Ford's relatives contact NCIS in hopes that they can find him. NCIS xover with Stargate: Atlantis.

* * *

** Prologue**

If someone asked her whether or not she missed being in the field, NCIS Director Jenny Sheppard would have not directly answered them because the truth was that she did sometimes miss the fieldwork. But her job as Director of NCIS was also very important, and not just because she got a lot more respect. One of the main reasons why she had joined NCIS in the first place was to help people in need of helping. And as Director, she got to do a lot of that.

Currently, Jenny was in her office with Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and a new client, Lara Morris, who had come to NCIS about her cousin, Aiden.

"When was the last time you saw your cousin?" Jenny asked Lara.

"I last saw Aiden right before he was reassigned." Lara took a sip of her coffee.

"I have to ask, why come to us? Why not just go to you cousin's CO?" Gibbs asked the woman.

"I did get a visit from Aiden's CO. He said that Aiden had gone MIA, and that he hadn't ruled Aiden as KIA, yet. That was nearly two years ago," Lara replied. "I came here because I thought that NCIS might have some resources that the Marine's don't," Lara explained. "And also because my grandfather had a bad stroke recently, and may not live all that long. Aiden's parents died when he was very young. My grandparents took him in and brought him up; they're very close."

"Do you know where your cousin was assigned to?" Gibbs asked Lara, who shook her head.

"No," She replied. "All he could tell us was there couldn't be any mail as he was going to be in a very remote part of the world. We, that is, my grandparents and I, just assumed he was in Afghanistan or Iraq, or someplace around there."

Jenny and Gibbs glanced at each other. She wondered what the lieutenant had gotten himself involved in where he couldn't be contacted in, by mail or even e-mail.

"Nearly two years ago," Lara continued, "I received a video that was from Aiden."

"Do you still have it?" Jenny asked. Lara nodded.

"Yes," she said. "It's in my car. I didn't bring it in with me 'cause of the security and all."

"We're going to need to borrow it," Gibbs said.

Lara nodded. "I figured you might need to see it."

"What was in the video?" Gibbs inquired.

"Aiden just talked mostly about family stuff, and very little about what he was doing," Lara answered. "But he did mention that he was worried about being attacked by a foe."

"What is your cousin's name?" Jenny asked Lara.

"First Lieutenant Aiden Ford," Lara replied.

* * *

I know that Jenny Sheppard's name is spelt with 1 'P', but for the purpose of this story, I'm spelling it with 2 'P's. 

And please, don't forget to review!


	2. Missing

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Somebody else owns both shows. I also don't own the idea for the computer game that is in this chapter. Another SGA author (whose name or story I don't remember) came up with the idea for the computer game (though I did change the name).

Author's Note: This chapter, and possibly the next couple, will be a lot of NCIS with very little SGA. So be warned for that.

Thank you all for reviewing! I really do appreciate them.

* * *

Missing

It had been a slow couple of weeks for Agent Gibbs' team at NCIS. Since they had no field cases, the agents were stuck with doing paperwork. That was what Officer Ziva David was currently doing. And it seemed that she was the only one, too. As soon as Gibbs had gotten called to the Director's office and was out of site and earshot, Special Agents Timothy McGee and Tony DiNozzo had stopped working on the dreaded paperwork. By the sound of it, it seemed that Tony was chatting online, and McGee was playing some sort of computer game, one that he was very into, from the way he was staring at his screen, hardly even blinking.

"You two are supposed to be working, yes?" Ziva said to Tony and McGee. "If Gibbs finds out, he'll…"

"Come on, Ziva," Tony interrupted. "It's been several very slow, agonizingly boring weeks here. I don't think Gibbs will mind if we take a little break."

Ziva snorted. Tony's idea of a 'little' was not the same as everybody else's. A little to him was like… well, it was much bigger than everyone else's was!

"Besides, it's like they say," McGee added, staring intensely at his computer screen, "when the cat's away, the mice will play." Ziva rolled her eyes. Gibbs had only been in the Director's office for an hour.

Ziva was just starting her work again when McGee interrupted her.

"Oh, no, no, no, no…!" McGee exclaimed, looking like he wanted to bang his head somewhere.

Tony looked over at McGee. "What now, Probie?"

"I just got the life sucked out of me," McGee groaned, sitting back in his chair, defeated; he sighed.

Ziva sent a questioning look at Tony who returned it.

"Got your life sucked out of you, Probie?" Tony repeated, getting up to walk to McGee's desk. Ziva followed suite. By the time Ziva got to McGee's desk, the _Game Over_ had just finished flashing on the screen, and the options of 'start' and 'quit' and 'top scores' were up. "What are you playing?"

"It's called _Wraith Wars_," McGee explained. "See, there are these alien bad guys called Wraith…"

"Who aren't human," Tony interrupted, looking at the picture on the box the game came in.

"Uh… right," McGee said, and then continued, "and their only food source is us."

"Us?" Ziva inquired. "You mean human beings?"

"Yep," McGee nodded. "Anyway, there are different levels in the game, each level with different challenges. Sometimes your objective is to steal some Wraith information, while other times it's to blow up their ships before they blow ours…."

"Ours?" Tony interrupted again. "You mean, like planet Earth's ships?"

"Yep," McGee confirmed again. "In here, Earth has one spaceship called the _Prometheus_."

"That's nice, McGee," Gibbs said walking up to McGee's desk. "Aren't you supposed to be working?" He asked his team.

"Uh, we were just taking a break, Boss," Tony said, looking like he just got caught by a parent doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

"Which we were just getting back to," Ziva added when Gibbs continued to look at them. She gave Tony a look as if to say 'I told you so.' She and Tony headed back to their desks.

"You can do that later," Gibbs stated. He clicked a button on a remote and a picture of a young Marine came up on the plasma screen.

"This is First Lieutenant Aiden Ford," Gibbs said as Ziva, Tony, and McGee came up to face the screen. "He is officially listed as MIA, and his family wants us to find him before his grandfather dies."

"See what you can find out about the last mission he was on," Gibbs ordered his team. He sat down in his desk.

"On it, Boss!" Tony said, already heading back to his desk and Ziva and McGee went to theirs.

///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\

On the balcony overlooking the room, Jenny observed Gibbs' team as they worked. They were all typing on the computer. She gave them a small smile and walked back to her office.

Gibbs looked up in time to watch Jenny walk back into her office.

\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\

"All right. What've we got?" Gibbs asked some hours later. Ziva hung up her phone.

"Lt. Ford is a decorated officer," Tony said, walking until he was in front of Gibbs' desk. "Some of his medals include Naval Parachutist, Expert Pistol Shot and Expert Rifleman. All in all, he was- or is- an excellent officer," Tony stopped talking to take a breath. He then continued. "I've been able to find out somewhat of what he'd been doing two years ago. Apparently, he was working out of Cheyenne Mountain. He started working there a couple of years prior to two years ago. Apparently, the Mountain had him stationed, for several months, in Antarctica." Tony shuddered at the thought. "Who, in their right mind, would want to work in Antarctica?" He asked rhetorically.

"Well, actually…" McGee started, apparently not getting that it was a rhetorical question. Tony looked at him. McGee got it. "Oh, that was rhetorical." He muttered.

"One of my contacts told me that at least a hundred of other military and scientists left about the same time Ford was reassigned." Ziva said.

"An expedition," Tony suggested.

"For what?" McGee added.

"That's the million and one dollar question, McGee," Tony said.

"These military and scientists are from other countries?" Gibbs asked as McGee reached for his ringing phone.

"Yes," Ziva answered.

"So, and international expedition," Tony said as McGee hung up his phone.

"Abby wants us in her lab," McGee announced.

"What do you have, Abs?" Gibbs asked as he walked into the lab claimed by Abby Sciuto. The forensic scientist was at her usual place in front of the computer, taking a sip of her favorite drink called Caf-Pow.

"Not a whole lot," the gothic forensic scientist replied.

"Then why'd you call us down here?" Gibbs asked.

"Patience Gibbs," Abby said, facing the team. "I called you down here to answer a question." She turned back to her computer and started typing.

"What's the question?" Tony asked, watching as Abby pulled up the video Lt. Ford had made for his family.

"Have you ever seen any architecture like this before?" Abby pointed to the walls behind Ford. The colors of the wall blue and brown. Behind Ford's left shoulder were horizontal lights that looked like they went straight up.

"Not that I can think of," Gibbs answered, frowning at the picture.

"Neither can I," Abby said, facing Gibbs.

"That's because it's at a classified location," came a voice from the entrance of the lab. The team turned towards the doorway to find the Director standing with an Air Force officer.

"I'm Major Paul Davis of the Air Force," the man identified himself. "I believe you're looking for information on Lieutenant Aiden Ford."

* * *

Finally done with this chapter! I'm sorry if any of the characters are a little… off. It's hard to make sure the characters (especially Gibbs and Abby) are in character. I tried my best. 


	3. The Invitation

Disclaimer: I still own nothing.

A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed! I'm thrilled that people like this story!

* * *

THE INVITATION

A couple of minutes after the rather unexpected arrival of Major Paul Davis, Director Sheppard, and Gibbs' team were sitting around a table in the Director's office.

"So, you're here about Lt. Ford?" Gibbs said, making it sound more of a statement than a question. He already figured as much; why else would an Air Force Major be at NCIS's headquarters then?

"That's correct," Major Davis confirmed. "When my superiors heard that you were investigating Lt. Ford, they felt they should send someone over to explain Ford's situation."

"What situation would that be?" Gibbs asked.

"I can't go into further detail here, all I can say is Lt. Ford's missing in action status is rather unique." Davis replied.

"Can you at least tell us where he went MIA?" Tony asked.

"That's classified," Davis replied.

"What can you tell us?" Gibbs asked in an irritated tone. Depending on the situation, Gibbs could be a patient man. But this was not one of those situations. He was getting extremely annoyed of Davis's answers, or lack thereof.

"Nothing much without having you sign a non-disclosure form, " Davis said. "My superiors considered ordering you not to investigate Ford anymore," he admitted, "but then they reminded themselves that you would probably not listen very well to that."

Tony grinned to himself at that. Davis' superiors were right; when Gibbs started a case, he liked to finish it. He absolutely hated having cases taken away from him. Of course, Gibbs would never break the rules; he'd just bend them.

"Which is why," Davis continued," I have been instructed to hand you out an invitation to Cheyenne Mountain."

"Cheyenne Mountain? Really?" McGee asked, surprised.

Davis nodded. "Yes. There's no better safe place to talk about the classified material we need to talk about than the Mountain," Davis stated. "If Director Sheppard agrees to it, you're to leave in two days by plane, which will take you to the Mountain. From there, after you sign the non-disclosure form, you'll be debriefed about the last mission Ford was on."

"How long is this going to take?" Ziva asked curiously.

"I expect you to be at the Mountain at least a few hours," Davis replied. "After that, you'll be taken to where the lieutenant was last assigned. In all, I expect it to take at least a month; two months, max."

Tony stared at Davis in surprise. "Two months?" He asked

Davis nodded again. "At least."

"Why that long?" McGee asked.

"You'll understand once you're debriefed," Davis answered.

"So Director, are we clear to go?" Gibbs asked Jenny.

"Do what you need to do to complete this case," Jenny said.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"So, how long are you going to be gone?" Jeanne Benoit, Tony's girlfriend, asked. It was evening and they were both in bed; Tony had just filled her in on his unexpected travel plans.

"One month minimum, two months max," Tony answered. "Hopefully less."

"Hopefully," Jeanne agreed. "Well," she said, positioning herself so she was on top of Tony, "we'd best make the most of it while we can." Tony grinned as she leaned down to kiss him.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The day before they were scheduled to leave, the team spent time getting their things ready. They packed, made sure everything in their homes (or apartments) was taken care of, etc. They also did some more researching on anything else they might need about the case.

Before they knew it, the day to leave had come.

"You'll buy me souvenirs?" Abby asked McGee, Tony, and Ziva when they came to visit her before they left.

"Of course," McGee assured her.

"We'll get you lots," Tony added.

"Ohh," Abby said and then unexpectedly hugged them all. "I'm going to miss you guys so much!"

"Yeah," Tony grunted when Abby got to him (she hugged him hard).

"We are only going to be gone for at least a month," Ziva said after Abby hugged her.

"But a month is a very long time," Abby explained. "Especially when I will only have Ducky and Jimmy to talk to." Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard is the chief medical examiner at NCIS and Jimmy Palmer is his assistant. They work primarily in the morgue and often assist Gibbs and his team in investigations.

"You'll have other cases to work on, too," McGee said.

"Yes," Abby agreed. "But it's not the same!"

"What's not the same?" Gibbs asked, coming in the room.

"Gibbs!" Abby said as she turned around and promptly hugged him.

"Abby," Gibbs said, trying not to show that he was amused, "we're only going to be gone a month."

"That's what I said," Ziva said.

"And I replied that a month is still a long time," Abby said when she was finished hugging Gibbs.

"It's time," Gibbs said to Tony, Ziva, and McGee. They said their last round of good-byes to Abby and left the NCIS building.

SGA/NCIS/SGA/NCIS/SGA/NCIS

The flight to Cheyenne Mountain was uneventful. While Gibbs and Ziva spent the majority of the time reading files on the case, Tony spent the majority of the time playing games on his laptop. McGee spent the trip playing his Wraith Wars game. When they were about half way there, Gibbs suggested that they try to get some sleep, which they tried to do.

When they did finally arrive at Cheyenne Mountain, they had to go through a series of checkpoints inside the mountain. Once done with that, they were escorted to a conference room. Their escort told them that the general would be in with them in a minute and then left them. The team sat around the rectangle table in the room; Gibbs and Ziva sat on the right side of the table while McGee and Tony sat on the opposite side.

"So," Tony said, dragging out the word to fill in the silence. "Nice room."

"Oh, yes," McGee agreed looking around the room, taking in the gray walls, the blast door that was down, and the American flag in a corner. "Very military."

Just then, the door opened and three men (one of them being Major Davis) walked into the room. The first man to walk in the room was military (an Air Force Major General, to be exact), Major Davis was the second, and the third man, wearing a suit and glasses, was obviously a civilian. Gibbs automatically stood up and the rest of the team followed, albeit more slowly.

"Sorry I'm late," the major general said sitting down at the head chair. Major Davis and the civilian sat at the chairs (that the team had left open) on either side of the general, with Major Davis sitting next to Gibbs, and the civilian sitting next to McGee. "I had another matter to look into."

"That's all right," Gibbs told him.

"Before we begin," the general said, "let's sign the non-disclosure form. Major," the general nodded at Major Davis, who nodded back.

"Right," Davis said. He handed the four NCIS agents (well, technically three NCIS agents and one Mossad officer) a folder. Tony opened his and saw the non-disclosure form inside. "If you would, please sign those." Tony skimmed the form and then did as asked. He looked up and saw the rest of the team doing the same.

"Let's start with the introductions first," the general began once all of the folders containing the non-disclosure forms were handed back to Major Davis, "I'm Major General Hank Landry, and I believe you already have met Major Davis," General Landry said, motioning his hand towards Major Davis who nodded. Again, General Landry motioned his hand, but this time toward Mr. Woolsey. "This is Mr. Richard Woolsey, a representative from the IOA."

"The IOA?" McGee asked.

"It's-" The general and Woolsey started at the same time. Woolsey stopped and looked at the general who motioned him to go ahead.

"The IOA stands for the International Oversight Advisory," Woolsey said.

"What do you oversee?" Ziva asked curiously.

"We oversee the Stargate Program," Woolsey answered. "The Stargate," he continued, "is an alien device that creates wormholes to send people to other worlds."

At that explanation, Tony and Ziva stared at him, wide eyed, while McGee's mouth came open. Gibbs just simply raised an eyebrow at the general.

* * *

So, how was that? I knew that I wanted the team to be at the SGC for the debriefing, and the above was the only way I could think of how to get them there. 

Next up: The NCIS team gets an extremely crash course in the history of the Stargate Program, and they also go on an unexpected ride.


	4. Learning the Truth

A/N: Yes! I've finally updated something! Wow, it's been quite a while since I've updated this fic, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Anyway, this chapter's a bit longer than the previous ones and that's because the conversation in here is a bit long, but I couldn't see a way around it. But hopefully it's not too long. Anyway, enough chattering. Now, onto the story….

Previously on One Small Ride…

"Let's start with the introductions first," the general began once all of the folders containing the non-disclosure forms were handed back to Major Davis, "I'm Major General Hank Landry, and I believe you already have met Major Davis," General Landry said, motioning his hand towards Major Davis who nodded. Again, General Landry motioned his hand, but this time toward Mr. Woolsey. "This is Mr. Richard Woolsey, a representative from the IOA."

"The IOA?" McGee asked.

"It's-" The general and Woolsey started at the same time. Woolsey stopped and looked at the general who motioned him to go ahead.

"The IOA stands for the International Oversight Advisory," Woolsey said.

"What do you oversee?" Ziva asked curiously.

"We oversee the Stargate Program," Woolsey answered. "The Stargate," he continued, "is an alien device that creates wormholes to send people to other worlds."

At that explanation, Tony and Ziva stared at him, wide eyed, while McGee's mouth came open. Gibbs just simply raised an eyebrow at the general.

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Chapter 4

Learning the Truth

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"Other worlds?" Tony repeated, still staring at Woolsey gobsmacked. "You've got to be kidding me!" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw McGee close his mouth, which had literally fallen open at Woolsey's startling statement.

"I'm afraid we're not, Agent DiNozzo," Woolsey said with a serious look. General Landry then gave the go-ahead and the blast door on the general's right was lifting up. The team stared in amazement as the blast door revealed what it had been hiding- an extremely large, ancient-looking ring.

"Is that…?" Ziva trailed off, getting up, still staring at the Stargate as she and the others walked to the window to get a closer look.

"The Stargate," Landry began as he stood slightly behind the NCIS team, looking at the Ancient device, "was first discovered in Giza by a Dr. Langford in 1928. It soon fell into the hands of the Air Force who began to study it. It wasn't until about 11 years ago that we began to really make headway with it. An archeologist was hired to decipher the hieroglyphics on the 'gate. It took him two weeks to decipher it when our team of archeologists couldn't do it in two years." Landry chuckled slightly at that.

"What was the archeologist's name?" Gibbs asked curiously.

"His name," Landry said, "is Dr. Daniel Jackson."

McGee started at that. "Wait, Dr. Daniel Jackson? The one who wrote that paper theorizing that the pyramids in Egypt were actually made by aliens?" He asked incredulously.

"That's the one," Landry nodded. "You've read his papers, then?"

"Well, actually, no," McGee admitted. "Abby…uh Abby Sciuto, our forensic scientist, read it. She's into this kinda thing."

Just then the 'gate began to move startling the NCIS team, though Gibbs held his surprise better than his subordinates did.

"Scheduled off-world activation." A voice announced over the PA system. The stargate continued to move around until it suddenly stopped and a loud kawoosh sound occurred as what looked like water stretched out and then settled back into its place in the immense ring.

While the stargate was settling in, Landry looked around at his visitors to see their reactions. He chuckled at their astonished looks. Like his predecessor, Jack O'Neill, he enjoyed seeing the stunned reactions on the people's faces when they first saw the 'gate in action.

"SG-12 is right on time," Landry noted as four people stepped out from the shimmering substance that appeared to look like water.

"How does it work?" Ziva asked curiously as she watched the activity below.

"The 'gate actually works similar to the telephone," Major Davis replied. "Normally, you have a series of seven symbols, and when you type in the correct address, it'll connect to the Stargate of the planet you want. You travel to the other 'gate through a wormhole."

"The first six symbols act as sort of co-ordinates," Woolsey added, "it creates three intersecting lines and the destination. The Stargate uses the seventh symbol as the point of origin." After Woolsey spoke, they watched in silence as the people below left the gate room.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Tony asked to no one in particular.

"One of your movies, no doubt?" Ziva said.

"Actually, no," Tony said, surprising his teammates. He grinned to himself. He knew they were expecting him to say yes and mumble off a movie name. But it was not a movie that he was thinking of, although it was similar. "This actually reminds me of a sci-fi TV show that got canceled."

"_Wormhole X-Treme_?" McGee asked.

"What? No." Tony frowned at McGee. "I was actually thinking of _Farscape_."

"Isn't _Farscape_ that one about some guy who accidentally gets himself sent to a distant part of the galaxy?" Ziva asked. "Through a wormhole, if I'm not mistaken."

Tony, Gibbs, and McGee looked at Ziva in surprise.

"Ziva, I thought you didn't own a TV," Tony said, looking at the Mossad liaison.

"Just because I don't own a television set doesn't mean I don't know about the TV shows out there," Ziva retorted.

Landry chuckled at the conversation between the NCIS team. To him, they seemed to be as close, or nearly as close, as SG-1. "As interesting as this conversation is," he said, getting their attention, "let's go back to the table, shall we? We still have much to talk about." They started heading back to the table. "Oh, and Agent McGee was closer than Agent DiNozzo was." He added when they were almost at the table. Tony and Ziva looked at McGee who looked just as surprised as them.

"Wait, so _Wormhole X-Treme_ was based on this?" McGee asked astonished.

"The Air Force thought it was a good idea to let it go through," Major Davis said.

"That way in case if any people got to close to the truth, nobody would take them too seriously because of the show," Gibbs realized.

Landry nodded. "That's what the Air Force thought." He sat down in his chair.

"General, I have to ask, does my country know about this?" Ziva asked when they were all seated.

"Yes," Landry said.

"We have informed the majority of our NATO and Major non-NATO allies about the discovery of the Stargate," Woolsey said.

"In fact, there are some Israeli soldiers and scientists who are members of the Atlantis Expedition." Landry added.

"The what?" Tony asked looking at Landry. Landry nodded at Davis to speak.

"We've known for quite some time that the Stargate network was built by an incredibly advanced civilization we call the Ancients." Major Davis explained. "A couple of years ago, we discovered that they had built a city which was, at the time, located at Antarctica.

"But several thousand of years ago, the Ancients left Earth and took the city with them," Landry said.

Tony stared at him. "Took the city? How did they do that?"

"They had built the city with the ability to fly," Landry said.

"A flying city?" McGee said in disbelief. The general nodded.

"In their native language, the Ancients called the city Atlantus," Major Davis said. "In our language, we call it—"

"Atlantis," Ziva said, interrupting him. Davis nodded.

"Atlantis?" Tony said incredulously, leaning forward. "As in lost city comma the?"

Landry nodded. "That's the one."

"I can't believe the lost city of Atlantis is real!" Tony exclaimed sitting back in his seat. He looked at McGee who, he saw, was frowning.

"I thought Atlantis was a legend from Ancient Greece?" McGee said, thinking aloud.

"Our theory is that when the Ancients abandoned Atlantis, they settled in that area where the Ancient Greeks learned of Atlantis from them." Woolsey said.

"That makes sense," Gibbs mused.

"Wait," Ziva said, frowning as she thought about what the general had said earlier about Atlantis, "you said that the Ancients flew the city from Earth. Where did they go?"

"Why did they leave?" Tony added.

"We speculate they left Earth because they were dying from a plague," Major Davis said. "However, we can't be sure that that is the truth. As for where they went, well, they flew the city to a nearby galaxy we call the Pegasus Galaxy."

His statement was met with surprised looks from the NCIS team.

"Pegasus? The dwarf galaxy?" McGee said, stunned. Of all the places… or planets he could think of, he had not even considered another galaxy.

"Lt. Ford was part of this expedition, wasn't he?" Gibbs stated. It was obvious that the lieutenant was part of the Atlantis Expedition, why else would General Landry be telling him and his team about it otherwise?

Landry nodded. "That's correct. Lt. Ford had been apart of the Stargate program for a couple of years prior to his joining the Expedition. When the opportunity came to join the expedition, he went for it."

"What went wrong?" Ziva asked. "Why is Lt. Ford MIA?"

"Soon after the Expedition arrived at Atlantis, they encountered a race which you might describe as the local bad guys. They call themselves the Wraith." Landry explained.

Ziva, McGee, and Tony looked at each other in surprise.

"Wraith?" Tony said. "As in creepy looking space vampires who suck out your life essence- that kinda Wraith?"

"Let me guess, you play Wraith Wars," Landry said dryly. It wasn't surprising that one of the NCIS agents happened to play that game. After the game had hit the Earth market, it became an instant popular computer game for both children and adults alike.

"Actually, I play it," McGee broke in as Tony opened his mouth to reply. "So the Wraith aren't fictional villains?" He asked, ignoring the annoyed look Tony had given him.

"I wish," Landry said.

"Are the Wraith from the game exactly like the ones in real life?" McGee wondered aloud.

"Yes," Landry nodded. "Would you care to give your teammates an explanation?" He asked McGee.

"Okay," McGee said, and took a breath. "Basically, the Wraith, as Tony noted, are our version of vampires. However, instead of sucking your blood, they basically take away your life." After he said that, he looked at General Landry who nodded.

"As short as that explanation was, that is mostly correct," Landry said. "In the Pegasus Galaxy, the Wraith are known and feared by humans across the galaxy. The Expedition has crossed paths with the Wraith on numerous occasions, and has succeeded in pissing them off. About a year after they'd been in the Pegasus Galaxy, the Wraith attacked Atlantis."

"During the attack, Lt. Ford was cornered by a Wraith," Major Davis said, continuing where the general had left. "Apparently the Wraith had just started to feed on him and then they were blown into the ocean. Lt. Ford and the Wraith were in the ocean for nearly an hour before they were recovered."

"And the lieutenant was alive when he was recovered?" Ziva inquired.

"Yes," Major Davis said nodding his head.

"Isn't that impossible?" McGee asked.

"Normally, yes," Major Davis replied. "However, these were not normal circumstances."

"Because of this incident, we discovered that when the Wraith feed on humans, they release an enzyme that strengthens the victim, otherwise they would die." Woolsey explained.

"Because Lt. Ford was in the water for an hour with a Wraith attached to him, a lot of this enzyme was injected into him." Major Davis said. "Dr. Beckett, the chief medical doctor on Atlantis, attempted to help Lt. Ford, but Ford became paranoid and thought that the people in Atlantis were afraid of him and so he managed to escape."

"So, Lt. Ford could be anywhere in the Pegasus Galaxy?" Tony asked.

"We're not sure," Major Davis admitted.

"A few months after Lt. Ford escaped, we had an encounter with him," General Landry explained. "You'll be able to read more of that encounter in the reports. To make a long story short, there was a battle, and our people lost sighting of Lt. Ford. We're not sure how he could have survived the battle."

"So, for all we know, Ford could be dead," Gibbs said.

"Could be, yes," Landry said.

"But as there is no proof he is dead, we haven't labeled him as deceased yet," Major Davis said.

"Moving on, I assume you wish to speak with the people Lt. Ford worked with?" Landry asked Gibbs.

"To conduct as thorough of an investigation as we can, yes." Gibbs said with a slight nod.

"I assumed so," Landry said. "Which is why I have arranged transportation for you to the Pegasus Galaxy."

"You mean we're not going through the Stargate?" Tony asked, feeling disappointed. Since he had been told about the alien device, he had been itching to go through it.

"I'm afraid not," Landry said. "To open the 'gate to Atlantis requires a lot of power through a device we call Zero Point Module. And we, unfortunately, have an extremely short supply of them. Atlantis is running on one Z.P.M at the moment, and we'd like to conserve as much power as possible."

"Atlantis does have a scheduled check-up, but it's not for another couple of days." Woosley added.

"How are we getting there if we're not going through the Stargate?" Ziva wondered.

"The old fashioned way," Landry said.

Tony gaped at him. "We have a spaceship?!"

"We have a couple of spaceships," Major Davis said. "The one you'll be on is called the Daedalus."

"Before you board the Daedalus, we ask that you stop by the infirmary for a check-up," Landry said. "Anybody who goes off-world gets checked by Dr. Lam more as a safety precaution."

"Understandable," Gibbs said. After that, the meeting was adjourned and Major Davis and Woolsey escorted the NCIS team to the infirmary.

* * *

Finally done with this chapter! I'm sorry if the conversation was long, or too long for your liking, but I could see no way around it. I didn't plan for that to happen, but it just did. I was originally going to end this chapter at another spot, but since the conversation was so long, it got pushed back into the next chapter (which hopefully won't take so long to write). 

Also, I decided it was time to get a beta-reader for this story. What you'd be mostly doing is making sure I've got the characters in character. Sometimes I'm not quite sure if they are in character, so it would be helpful to have a 2nd opinion. If you're interested, either let me know in the review, or e-mail me. I would prefer the beta-reader to be someone who watches both NCIS and Stargate: Atlantis.

Oh, and NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's a military alliance. Basically, the organization established a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

A major non-NATO ally is a name given by the United States government to exceptionally close allies who have close strategic working relationships with American forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. I would suggest you go wikipedia(dot)org to if you want to learn more about these organizations.


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